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Monday, July 28, 2014

Jelks, Okagbare shine for Nigeria

Nigerian athletes started on a good note on Sunday as they booked semi-final tickets at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland.

Reigning Nigeria champion Mark Jelks in Heat 3 in 10.28 seconds to qualify for the semi-finals which hold on Monday.

Jelks went into the competition with a personal best of 9.99 seconds and a season best of 10.13 seconds.

Warren Fraser of the Bahamas picked the second qualifying ticket from Heat 3 in 10.31 seconds.

In Heat 6, Mozavous Edwards qualified for the semi-finals after finishing second in 10.40 seconds behind England’s Adam Gemili who won in 10.15 seconds.

Former Nigeria champion, Ogho-Oghene Egwero, got his semi-finals ticket following a photo-finish with third-placed Aaron Brown of Canada. Egwero beat Brown to the second place with a hundredth of a second (10.38 seconds) behind South Africa ’s Akani Simbine who won the race in 10.32 seconds.

Stephen Mozia failed to advance from the group stage in the men’s shot put after recording 17.76 metres to finish 14th overall.

In the women’s 100 metres events, Gloria Asumnu finished second in 11.43 seconds behind Jamaica ’s Veronica Campbell-Brown, who won Heat 1 in 11.29 seconds. Jade Bailey of Barbados finished third in 11.64 seconds to also qualify for the semi-finals.

Justina Sule crashed in Heat 4 after finishing sixth in 12.00 seconds.

Africa’s fastest woman, Blessing Okagbare, expectedly won Heat 5 in 11.50 seconds ahead of England’s Asha Philip (11.47) and Cyprus’ Anna Papaioannou (11.67).

Regina George took things easy on her way to picking her ticket for the women’s 400 metres semi-finals, finishing second in 53.92 seconds behind Sri Lanka ’s Chandrika Mudiyans, who won in 53.75 seconds.

In Heat 5, Folashade Abugan also finished second in 52.84 seconds behind Botswana ’s Amantle Montsho (51.88) to qualify for the semi-finals.

Omolara Omotosho made her way into the semi-finals with her 53.02 seconds effort, finishing second behind Jamaica ’s Stephanie McPherson (52.25).

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